"I hope you can make two doses," Astrid said, her voice already far away, eyes drooping shut as her legs swayed, and she toppled down onto the floor.

The Slitherwing poison dripped from her wrist, and Fishlegs dropped to his knees, gathering it all together before it could seep into the ground and both Astrid and Stormfly would be lost.

"Astrid," he said, panicking leaking into his voice as he shook her shoulder. "Astrid?! Stay with us! Guys, go get her some water!"

Ruffnut and Tuffnut stumbled off into the other direction – "Wait!" Fishlegs yelled, turning to them, mouth set in a grim line. On the floor, Astrid's breath came out in short shallow gasps, her body trying desperately to get air to her lungs. "Get Hiccup."

Hiccup knew that something was wrong almost immediately.

The fact that the twins weren't cracking jokes or talking nonsense when they came to get him was enough to make his stomach sink, and when Ruffnut said, "Astrid got poisoned by a Slitherwing," he was already marching back down the hill before she'd even finished her sentence.

Down in the clearing, Fishlegs had propped Astrid's head up against one of their satchels, her limbs lying limply at her side, and Hiccup was reminded, with a horrible pang to his heart, of the day months before, when she'd been sick with the Scourge of Odin. He still thought about that day, the image of Astrid pale and sickly and so close to the death, appeared often in his nightmares. He'd hoped never to see her like that again, yet here she was, a perfect mirror. Bile rose in his throat.

He knelt on the ground, one hand gently brushing her fringe from her face, the other entangling their fingers together. "Astrid?" he said, his voice thick.

No response.

"What happened?" he said, turning his attention to Fishlegs, who was working furiously with the Slitherwing venom.

"She ran off to get the venom, and came back like this," Fishlegs said. "I've been trying to get antidote ready, but—" his voice cracked – "there's not much of it."

Hiccup looked from Fishlegs to Astrid, back to Fishlegs again. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know if it's going to be enough to cure her," he said. "I'm going to make as much of it as I possibly can, but it's fifty/fifty whether it works or not. All we can do is wait."

"We don't have time to wait," Hiccup said, his fingers gripping hard onto Astrid's hand. His voice quivered. "You said dead by the next moon."

Fishlegs didn't say anything, his mouth pressed into a thin line. He turned back to his work, messing around with vials and Slitherwing venom.

Hiccup frowned, turning back to the lifeless girl in his arms, now faced with the very real possibility that he might end up losing her.

"C'mon, Astrid," he muttered. "Don't leave me like this."

He put one arm around her shoulder and the other underneath her knees, pulling her close and cradling her to his chest, listening to her make very small and shallow breaths and holding on to them as a sign that she was still alive.

When those breaths stopped, panic seized his heart. "Fishlegs!" he called.

Fishlegs came running, antidote in hand. He lifted Astrid's head and forced every last drop down her throat.

"Make sure Stormfly gets some too," Hiccup said. Thor knows he wasn't going to let Astrid poison herself for nothing.

"Already done," Fishlegs said, kneeling at Astrid's side and taking a breath. "All we can do now is wait. She'll have to fight it off." He saw the look on Hiccup's face. "She's a fighter, you know that, Hiccup. If there's anyone who can get through this, it's Astrid."

"I know," Hiccup said. "Will you give me some time alone with her?"

Fishlegs nodded, and wordlessly got to his feet, disappearing off to give his friend his privacy. Hiccup turned his full attention to Astrid, bending his head and listening to her breathing.

"Come on, Astrid," he said, his voice low. "You've gotta fight this. You're not going to let this beat you. You've survived so much, and you will survive this." His voice wobbled. "I need you to survive this. I can't do this without you. There isn't a me if there isn't a you."

He pulled her closer still, nestling his nose into her hair. "I love you," he whispered. "I love you so much."

Then, as if in answer to his prayer, her chest rose, her eyelids fluttered, blue met green and-

"Hiccup?"

He let out a breath and wrapped his arms tight around her. "Oh, thank Thor."

She listened, her ears straining at the door, as she lifted herself up onto the tip of her toes to creep out of the room, and down onto the island. When she'd made it out of the threshold and onto the grass, she grinned and pelted her way towards the dragon stables, almost making it to the door, when:

"Astrid."

She stopped still, sighed, and turned around to where Hiccup was standing, arms folded. "Come on, Hiccup, I'm fine," she said, "stop playing prison guard."

"Fishlegs said the antidote is still passing through your body," he said, taking a step forward. "You're supposed to be resting."

She knew it was childish, but she folded her arms and stuck her tongue out anyway. "You can't make me."

He knew better than to say he could, so he didn't say anything at all.

She sighed, rolling her shoulders and wandering towards Stormfly's pen. "I wasn't trying to leave," Astrid said, opening the gate and kneeling next to the dragon's sleeping form, rubbing her snout. "I just had to know that she was okay."

Hiccup's features softened at that, and he followed her in, kneeling by her side. Her eyes flickered over towards him, watching the way he was looking at her. "I'm okay, Hiccup."

She shifted down into a sitting position – she was feeling woozy, not that she'd admit it – and wrapped her arms around Stormfly. Hiccup joined her, wrapping his arms around his legs.

"You scared me," Hiccup said, his voice small.

"You would have done the exact same thing for Toothless," Astrid said, her head rested against Stormfly's scales.

"You were just lying there, limp, and you stopped breathing," he said, his voice as solemn as she'd ever heard it. "For a minute there, I thought you were gone."

Astrid loosened her grip on Stormfly, turning back to Hiccup, her expression flooding with understanding. Hiccup took Astrid's hand in his, threading their fingers together.

"For a moment, I was thinking about how I'd go on if you weren't there," he said, "and a world without you would be a pretty lonely place."

She leaned close and kissed him softly. When their lips parted, she pressed her forehead against his. "I love you," she said, "but I'm Viking, Hiccup. I'm not going to stop putting myself in danger when it comes to my dragon. You'd do it with Toothless too."

"I know," he said, rubbing a hand against his face. "I know, I know, I know. And I don't mean to stop you from punching any terrifying, venomous dragon that you want, but... I worry."

"That goes for me too," Astrid said. "You think I don't worry every time you test out some new ridiculous invention only to narrowly miss death? I'm always worried about you, Hiccup, but I have to push it out of my mind because you are our leader and I trust you to make the right choices and come out of every hare-brained situation alive. I need you to do the same for me."

"I know. I do," Hiccup said, looking at her. Then a smile tugged at the edge of his lips, his eyes sparkling as he tried to suppress it.

"What?"

"You punched a Slitherwing dragon," he said, a full grin spreading across his face. "You just went up to it and punched it."

"Yes, I did," she said. "What about it?"

Hiccup looked at her, his eyes shining, still smiling. "I love you so much."

Astrid grinned, leaning down and nestling her head onto Hiccup's shoulder. "I love you too."

They lay like that, hands intertwined, heads touching as they succumbed to sleep, content with the world and content with each other. For now, it was enough.